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The Mysuru district cable television monitoring committee, headed by deputy commissioner D. Randeep, is scheduled to meet this week to nominate non-official members for the district-level cableTV monitoring committee.

The official members of the committee having the deputy commissioner as the chairman, the superintendent of Mysuru district police as the member, and the assistant director of department information and public relations, Mysuru, as the member secretary, will be meeting to recommend a panel of names to the government for its approval.

According to Raju, Assistant Director, Department of Information and Public Relations, the non-official members to become part of the committee include principal of a women’s college in the district, representative of a leading NGO working for children’s welfare, representative of a leading NGO working for women’s welfare, and an academician from the field of communications or psychology.

The term of the non-official members in the existing committee, who had been nominated for three years, has expired and hence the meeting to select a panel of new names, Raju added.

Among other things, the committee is expected to serve as forum where the public can lodge complaints against content aired over any television distribution platform, including cable and dish, and take necessary action. The committee is also expected to keep a watch on the content telecast by operators at the local level and the information is presented in a balanced and impartial manner without offending or inciting any community.

The district level committees should also bring to the notice of the state or centre if any program is affecting public order or causing resentment among any community. The committees are also expected to monitor advertisements aired by the television distribution platforms and see if they are in conformity with the advertisement codes.

Raju asserts that, the Mysuru district cable television monitoring committee, which has been in existence for the last three years, has not received any complaints so far. Meanwhile, the ministry of information and broadcasting, New Delhi, has, in a communication to the chief secretaries of all the states and union territories, referred to the Supreme Court’s advice to the governments to finalise a similar complaint redressal framework for private radio stations as well.

When Randeep’s attention was drawn to the letter, he asserts that he will study whether the ambit of the existing committees can be enlarged to monitor the content broadcast on private FM stations and community radio also.- The Hindu